 Student's friendship book / autograph album, a collection of sentiments and autographs from peers in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Romania. The bylines here include Clausenburg
(a.k.a. Klausenburg or Kolosvart), Hermannstadt, Presburg, Pesthini, Zilah (Zalau), and Vienna; two of the inscriptions are in Hungarian and one in Italian, with most of the dates centering around 1802 but some as early as 1800 or late as 1806. Among the signers were Franciscus Leichamschneider, Martinus Gekeli, Daniel Henrich, and Paul Nendvich. The owner's identity is difficult to ascertain, but based on the monogram offered in one inscription, his initials seem to have been “G.H.”

Many of the inscriptions are substantive, elaborate sentiments, mixed in with occasional brief, one- or two-line messages. In addition, the volume is decorated with a small watercolor (possibly patience on a monument), an ink sketch of another graveyard monument, and an elaborate black-paper silhouette of laurel wreath with crest surrounding a tree, stag, and banner-bearing man.

 Binding as above; edges and extremities rubbed, small cracks in leather of front cover and spine, a few small abrasions to back cover. Pages age-toned with occasional light spotting, otherwise clean. Evocative, charming. (27354)

First edition of Gaddi's Adlocutiones and the only edition of his Corollarium. Jacopo Gaddi (d. 1668) published these speeches, poems, and epitaphs praising European men of letters within years of founding the Accademia degli Svogliati, an international circle of living literati (including John Milton) who met at his home in Florence to discuss poetry and philosophy. His accolades, in Latin and Italian, go mostly to Italians, including Pietro Bembo, Pope Pius II, Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, Vicentine nobleman Giangiorgio Trissino, and Dante, among other late greats.

The Corollarium is only found bound with the Adlocutiones, as here; however the latter was also published separately the same year. Both were printed by Pietro Nesti at Florence using roman and italic type with woodcut initials, ornaments, head- and tailpieces. This volume concludes with the original final blank, lacking in many copies, although the Corollarium seems to lack a preliminary signature of two leaves (probably a blank and a sectional title leaf).

Provenance: Front fly-leaf and title-page with early owner's inscription of Oliver Pagn[...]; fly-leaf verso with owner's inscription dated 1650 of Jo[h]annes Baptista Adimari (related, perhaps, to Alessandro Adimari, a member of Gaddi's Accademia who died in 1649?); and front fly-leaf with later owner's inscription of Philadelphian Henry John Gibbons (“Rittenhouse Square West”).

 Contemporary flexible vellum with title inked to spine, pierced at the edges for four ties, now wanting; repairs with tissue to headcap, spine, and front cover edge. Title-page and following leaf repaired in two places, and following 30 pp. repaired in outer margin; first two leaves of second book wanting, as above. Foxing and occasional other staining throughout, the occasional tear, one leaf holed touching text but not spoiling reading, rear free endpaper torn away. Doodlings on front pastedown and fly-leaf; brief index to the first part written by an early hand on final recto and rear pastedown; later pencil markings. A proud witness to the interests of (Italian) academia. (30505)

 First U.S. edition of a Christmas Carol-inspired tale, illustrated by Gordon Browne. It should be noted that this story's ending is rather darker than the Dickensian, and requires death as the price of redemption!

 An expatriate living in Paris, Carlos García (ca. 1575 – ca. 1630) wrote on a variety of topics and in different genres ranging from a picaresque novel to essays on politics. The original Spanish title of the work offered here in Italian translation is La oposicion y conjuncion de los dos grandes luminares de la tierra, and was first published in Paris in 1617. This translation first appeared in 1637 and is from the pen of Clodio Vilopoggio.

The subject of this work is the rivalry between Spain and France for political and religious supremacy in the Catholic realm of Europe, but the author also discusses national traits, as he sees them, such as manner of dressing, walking, eating, and talking.

 Gabriel García Márquez's 1970 novel is widely considered a masterpiece of magic
realism, in which the line separating reality and fantasy is blurred and the extraordinary is
accepted as ordinary. It also contains what some have considered to be the best first line in
literature: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to
remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” This work and other
literary achievements would earn the Colombian writer, in 1982, a Nobel Prize.

This is copy number 1496 in edition limited to 2000, translated from the Spanish by
Gregory Rabassa with an introduction by Alastair Reid. The colophon page issigned by
both Rabassa and Reid, and also by the illustrator, Rafael Ferrer. The illustrations by Ferrer, a
native Puerto Rican, numbereight full-page oil paintings reproduced by the Seaboard
Lithograph Corporation and25 in-text ink drawings plus a full-page original graphic
handprinted by the Blackburn Studio, New York, on Rives paper, laid in at the back. Ferrer's
images, with their bold lines and colors, belong to the New Image school of painting, which
bears the unmistakable influences of Neo-Expressionism, Surrealism, and Dada. G.G. Laurens
designed calligraphy for the text, which was set in Monotype Fournier by Michael and Winifred
Bixler at their Boston Letterfoundry, and printed by theStinehour Press in Lunenburg, VT.

Binding: Quarter dark brown leather by Robert Burlen & Son over straw-colored natural
jute and linen, with the title gilt-stamped on the spine.

This offering includes the monthly newsletter.

 Limited Editions Club,
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 532.
Binding as above, in matching brown slipcase with gilt title on box spine.
Spine leather evenly sunned to café au lait, else clean and bright, in a near fine slipcase.
(30805)

 Beautiful printing of this 12th-century epic Latin poem on the life of Alexander the Great, edited by Oswald von Eck and with prefatory and supplementary matter by him, Sebastian Linck, and Hieronymus Ziegler. Sometimes known as Walter of Châtillon, Gualterus de Castellione, Philip Gaultier, or variants thereof, the author became with this widely read work the definitive source of the Latin hexameter, “Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim” (He falls in Scylla's jaws who would escape Charybdis), although he was not, of course, the originator of the proverb.

This is one of only three editions published in the 16th century, none of which are now common. The title-page here bears alarge woodcut vignette of Alexander on his horse, followed by an elaborately rendered, full-page coat of arms with crests; the main text is printed in italics, with shouldernotes in roman, and each book opens with a decorative capital.

 One of several works with the identical title but from different publishers and with different contents! The present volume contains engravings after paintings in the palace's “Galeries Historiques”: the engravers include Leroux, Masson, Thomas, Nargoot, Rebel, Frilley, and many others. Curiously, many engravings bear a faint line of identification reading “Diagraphe et Pantographe Gavard” and they have non-sequential numbering, meaning the images from this source could be and were recombined to form a wide variety of souvenir albums.

In this copy all plates are guarded by sheets of heavy paper stock.

Binding: In the style of a percaline mosaïquée, but the gilt and mosaic are applied to a textured pebbled cloth. Spine gilt extra with added “mosaic” of green, white, red and blue. Front cover with a blind-stamped border incorporating elegant corner-pieces; within this, “Souvenir de Versailles” gilt-stamped in an arc above a large on-laid crowned coat of arms flanked by banners and flags, this embellished in gilt with rich use of blue, white, red, blue, and green. Rear cover with similar blind-stamped border and a different large gilt-stamped center device strikingly incorporating an on-lay of blue stamped in gilt with a military medal. All edges gilt.

 On this type of binding, see: Morris & Levin, The Art of Publishers' Bookbindings, pp. 94–97. Binding as above, rubbed to the underlying boards at the corners of the boards and top of spine slightly pulled with one bit of rubbing. Scattered pale brown stains mostly on interleaves and sometimes visible on versos of plates; some discoloration in some margins of plates and occasionally into one; overwhelmingly a clean copy, remarkably bright and unfoxed. A strong and nice example of this category of “souvenir” and of a gilt mosaic binding. (30464)

 First trade edition: An evocative reprinting of Gay's mock-heroic verse description of London, with an introduction and notes by W.H. Williams. Printed at the Chiswick Press, the text reproduces the spelling, punctuation, and appearance of the 1716 first edition — with the exception of long S's, absent here for the modern reader's convenience — and is illustrated with 16 views of London by Hogarth and others.

 First of two Aldine editions published in 1515 of Gellius' only known work, with “duerniorem” on the final leaf as prescribed by Renouard. The iconic Aldine printer's device appears on both the title-page and the final leaf of text, with the fore-edge of the title-page having been slightly repaired long ago at the margin.

Gellius's Attic Nights, supposed to have been written for the entertainment and education of his children, offers a rich tapestry of the life and times of the Roman Empire under the five good emperors. In an informal style Gellius ranges from law, grammar, history, and literary criticism to evening chats with fellow students and visits to the awe-inspiring villas of Herodes Atticus, the most famous philanthropist of Athens. Editor Giovanni Battista Egnazio (1478–1553), an important part of the Aldine literary circle and executor of Manuzio's will, here presents a newly revised text — complete with two indexes and explanation of the Greek passages.

 Gellius's Attic Nights, supposed to have been written for the entertainment and education of his children, offers a rich tapestry of the life and times of the Roman Empire under the five good emperors. In an informal style Gellius ranges from law, grammar, history, and literary criticism to evening chats with fellow students and visits to the awe-inspiring villas of Herodes Atticus, the most famous philanthropist of Athens. Brunet calls the present example the “Édition la meilleure qui ait paru jusqu'ici” of the Attic Nights. Originally edited by Joannes Fredericus Gronovius and then polished by his son Jacobus Gronovius, this version also includes notes and commentary by Kaspar Schoppe, Peter Lambeck, Louis Carrion, Antoine Thysius, and Jacobus Oiselius.

The additional engraved title-page, done by P. Sluyter after a design by J. Groere, depicts the author at work on a moonlit night, and is decorated with medallions of Athena and her owl; the title-page is printed in red and black, with an engraved vignette of an Attic city.

 First edition:Inspired by English and French manners, yet a distinctlyAmerican conduct book with much reference to contrasts between American and foreign ways. The anonymous author is notably arch in tone, to the point that some readers have wondered whether this description of excruciatingly correct behavior is intended as satire.

“Gentleman
of Philadelphia County, A”[i.e.,
Jesse Y. Kester]. The American shooter's manual, comprising
such plain and simple rules, as are necessary to introduce the inexperienced
into a full knowledge of all that relates to the dog, and the correct use of
a gun; also a description of the game of this country. Philadelphia: Carey,
Lea & Carey, 1827. 12mo (18.5 cm; 7.125"). [2] ff., pp. [ix]–249,
[1] p., [1 (errata)] f., [3 (ads)] ff.; frontis., 2 plts.$1800.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 The first American illustrated sporting
book and the first American sporting book written by an American.
Only one sporting book published in America preceded it: The Sportsman's
Companion (NY,1783; later editions Burlington [NJ], 1791, and Philadelphia,
1793), “by a gentleman, who has made shooting his favorite amusement upwards
of twenty-six years, in Great-Britain, Ireland, and North-America.”

Kester deals almost exclusively with game birds and waterfowl native to the Delaware
Valley that surrounds Philadelphia: wild turkeys, partridge, snipe, quail, grouse, and ducks. With
regard to rifles and guns he addresses cleaning, powder, wadding, etc. And when writing about
dogs, in addition to notes on training and conditioning them, he offers recipes for common
ailments and gun-shot wounds.

The plates are signed “F. Kearny,” an artist born in Perth Amboy, NJ, who studied
drawing with Archibald and Alexander Robertson and engraving with Peter Maverick. From
1810 to his death in 1833 he practiced engraving in Philadelphia.

There are two states of gathering “U”: this copy has the typographical error “tibbon” with
the stop-press correction to “ribbon” on p. 235.

The volume ends with advertisements for several sporting and fishing goods suppliers.

 First U.S. edition, “authorized version as published by the British Government”: The Prime Minister summarizes England's conditions for peace. Laid in is a printed slip “With the compliments of Professor W. Macneile Dixon (University of Glasgow).”

Georgia. Laws, statutes, etc. Acts of the General Assembly of the state of Georgia, passed in Milledgeville, at the annual session in November and December, 1860. Milledgeville: Bougton, Nisbett & Barnes, 1861. 8vo. 267, [1] pp.$300.00

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 The acts in this volume were enacted just prior to Georgia's secession from the Union on 19 January 1861. Some concern black slaves and free blacks, others the state's asylums, schools, courts, and towns. Having been published following Secession, this isone of the earliest Confederate imprints published in the Peach State.

 First edition: Description of the Kannaur (or Kunáwár) region of the Himalayas, taken from the late Capt. Gerard's papers and edited by George Lloyd. Charles William Wason, in the Monthly Review (1841 collected volume), opened his review of this work by saying “CaptainAlexander Gerard, and his brother Dr. J.G. Gerard, have been deservedly ranked amongst the most enterprising scientific travellers to whom Great Britain has given birth,” and he went on to predict that this volume “will be regarded as a precious contribution to science, and to geographical knowledge.”

Gerard's observations cover botany, linguistics, culture, and commerce, as well as geography. The area of his travels is depicted by an oversized, folding map of his own design.

 NSTC 2G5453; Howgego, II, G7. Contemporary brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; rebacked and 95% of original spine reapplied, with the publisher's name at the foot of the spine chipped. Front pastedown and back of map each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings), front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated [18]49. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Last preface page with small inked annotation. Pages slightly age-toned; map with light offsetting and one short tear starting along fold, not touching image. (24291)

 “When reading Gerard we are wandering in the peace of an Elizabethan garden, with a companion whohas a story for every flower and is full of wise philosophies” (Woodward, p. viii). And indeed, Gerard's herbal is written in “glorious Elizabethan prose, [with] the folk-lore steeping its pages'” (Woodward, p. vii), these factors going a long way towards making it one of the best-known and -loved of the early English herbals. The “herbs” surveyed include plants aquatic and terrestrial, New World and Old, embracing shrubs, plants, and trees, each with a description of its structure and appearance, where it is found (and how it got there), when it is sown and reaped or flowers, its name or names (often with engrossingly exotic etymologies), its “temperature,” and its “vertues” or uses (often curious).

The story is famous: John Norton, Queen's printer, wished to bring out an English language version of Dodoen's Pemptades of 1583 and hired a certain “Dr. Priest” to do so, but the translator died with the work only partially done. A copy of the manuscript translation made its way into John Gerard's hands and he seized the opportunity, reorganizing the contents, obscuring the previous translator's contribution, incorporating aspects of Rembert and Cruydenboeck's works, and commandeering the result as his own.

Gerard abandoned Dodoen's classification, opting for l'Obel's instead, and, in a stroke of ambition and brilliance, illustrated the work withmore than 2500 woodcuts of plants. Many of these are large and all are attractive but more than a few were of plants he himself did not know, thus leading to considerable confusion between illustration and text in the earliest editions, this being third overall and the second with Thomas Johnson's additions and amendments. For both Johnson editionsa large number of the woodcuts were obtained from the famous Leyden printing and publishing firm of Moretus, successors to the highly famous firm of Plantin. As Johnston notes: “Most of the cuts were those used in the botanicals published by Plantin, although a number of new woodcuts were added after drawings by Johnson and Goodyer” (Cleveland Herbal . . . Collections, #185).

The large thick volume begins with a handsome engraved title-page by John Payne incorporating a bust of the author, urns with flowers and herbs, and full-length seated images of Dioscorides and Theophrastus and of Ceres and Pomona. Replacing the missing initial blank is a later leaf on which is mounted a large engraving of Gerard. The text is printed in italic, roman, and gothic type.

There is, to us, a surprising and very interesting section on grapes and wines. The first part of our caption delights partly in discovery that maize, the “corn” of the U.S., is here called “turkey wheat” — with further note that you can make bread of it, but that the result is pleasing only to “barbarous” tastes! The entry as a whole showsGerard at his characteristic best, at once scientifically systematic and engagingly discursive.

Provenance: Neatly lettered name of “W. Younge” at top of title-page; it is tempting to attribute this to William Younge, physician of Sheffield and Fellow of the Royal Linnean Society, whose online correspondence shows him to have been an eager collector of botanical books.

 STC (rev. ed.) 11752; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 636/25; Nissen, Botanischebuchs, 698n; Pritzel 3282n; Johnston, The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 185; Woodward, Gerard's Herball: The essence thereof distilled (London, 1964). On the source of the blocks, see: Hunt Botanical Catalogue and Bowen, K. L., & D. Imhof, The illustration of Books Published by the Moretuses (Antwerpen, 1997). For “Turkey Wheat, “ see: Gerard, p. 81; for polenta, p. 71. Late 17th-century English calf, plain style; rebacked professionally in the 20th century, later endpapers. As usual, without the first and last blank leaves. Three leaves with natural paper flaws in blank margins. A very good copy. (34500)

Geree, John. Vindiciae paedo-baptismi: Or, a vindication of infant baptism, in a full answer to Mr. Tombs his twelve arguments alleaged against it in his Exercitation, and whatsoever is rational, or material in his answer to Mr. Marshals Sermon. London: Pr. by John Field for Christopher Meredith, 1646. 4to (19 cm, 7.5"). [8], 71, [1] pp.$800.00

Click the image for an enlargement.

 First edition of this reply to John Tombes's Two Treatises and an Appendix to Them Concerning Infant-baptisme, both works being part of a vigorously conducted controversy on the topic involving Geree (the Church of England clergyman who wrote The Character of an Old English Puritan), Tombes, Michael Harrison, Stephen Marshall, and others among the most prominent theologians and preachers of the day.

A volume of modest production values, this begins nicely with a handsome title-page bearing an engraved vignette by Johann Wilhelm Meil (1733–1805) that sets the tone for the contents: lyricism in an idyllic setting.

 Gianni's black-and-white sketches and designs for a deluxe illustrated edition of Robert E. Howard's The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, opening with introductions by Neil Gaiman and Mike Mignola and featuring excerpts from Howard's text. Pre-publication advertising ephemera at its best.

 First edition. “One of the hindrances to an understanding of other classes is a lack of imagination,” and this story of Pennsylvania coal miners, a tale of “plain men” and their families, attempts to close the gap. The author, a Presbyterian minister/missionary and journalist, is no fan of unions; but he certainly understands and well conveys why they are formed, and it appears that some of the incidents in this novel are transferred directly from his reporting.

Illustrated by five halftone plates, including a tissue-guarded frontispiece.

Binding: Pictorial brown cloth stamped in black and orange. A miner stamped in black with orange face and hands stands beside a black-stamped mine entrance on the cover; a miner's gas lamp accents the spine; titles on spine and cover are in orange.

 Smith, American Fiction, 1901-1925: G-133; Hanna 1388. Quotations are from the novel's preface. Bound as above, minor rubbing to edges and joints, spine bumped at head. Light foxing to first and last couple of pages; offsetting from tissue guard to title-page. A
neat copy. (37484)

Gibbs, Henry Hucks. The life and martyrdom of Saint Katerine of Alexandria, virgin and martyr. Now first printed from a manuscript of the early part of the fifteenth century in the possession of Henry Hucks Gibbs, with preface, notes, glossary, and appendix. London: Nichols & Sons, 1884. 4to (26.6 cm, 10.5"). [8], xix, [1], 86, [2], lxii, 188 pp.; 1 col. plt.$500.00

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 First edition, printed for the members of the Roxburghe Club: a 15th-century prose rendition of one of the most popular virgin martyr legends, transcribed from the original manuscript and extensively annotated. The title-page is printed in black and red, and the main text — which preserves the spelling and special characters of the Middle English — is preceded by a color-printed facsimile of the first leaf of the illuminated manuscript. The volume closes with a reissue of the Early English Text Society's printing of Einenkel's edition of an Early Middle English verse rendition of the saint's life, given in Latin and Middle English.

 First edition (despite a misleading variant issue with an incorrect publication date of 1672) of this important source of ecclesiastical history and canon law. Not a lawyer himself, Gibson, Bishop of London, nonetheless made a significant contribution to English canon law with his landmark Codex juris ecclesiastici Anglicani; the present work marks his first legal effort, predating the 1713 publication of the Codex, and reflects his dedication to research and scholarship pertaining to the Church of England. The DNB notes that the Synodus Anglicana “came to be regarded as definitive.”

 First Irish edition and, notably, printed for awoman publisher. Sir Geoffrey (also given as Jeffrey or Jeffray) Gilbert (1674–1726), an eminent English judge, became chief baron of the Irish exchequer to the acclaim of all and sundry — until a case he was hearing put the Irish House of Lords in direct conflict with the British, leading to his brief imprisonment and, though much of the situation was beyond his control, much subsequent blame from the Irish for the passing of the Dependency of Ireland on Great Britain Act of 1719. During his otherwise more fortunate career, Gilbert wrote a number of legal works, none of which were published until after his death but all of which were well-received upon their appearance.

This particular treatise waspraised by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1815, and by John Adams; it appears here in its first Irish and third overall edition, following the first of 1730.

 ESTC T207893; Sweet & Maxwell (2nd ed.), I, 453:20. Contemporary speckled calf, joints reinforced some time ago, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-tooled bands. Pages age-toned and lightly cockled, with mild to moderate offsetting and spotting; last few leaves of index waterstained. One leaf with printing flaw: final words of 10 lines at bottom of page printed out of true. Not pristine, but sturdy and still respectable. (34394)

Gill, Eric. Clothes an essay upon the nature and significance of the natural and artificial integuments worn by men and women. London & Toronto: Jonathan Cape (pr. by Walter Lewis at the University Press, Cambridge), 1931. 8vo (19.3 cm, 7.6"). [6], 196, [4] pp.; illus.$300.00

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 First edition: The famed (and now controversial) artist discourses on the complicated interactions between biology, economics, culture, religion, and human sexuality and their effects on men's and women's wardrobes — the whole serving as an exposition of the author's philosophy of art, and incidentally of gender. This is the trade edition of the first printing, illustrated with10 wood engravings done by Gill.

Signed by Gill at the colophon, with a note on the front free endpaper recording that this copy was done 19 February 1934 “at a lecture at the Edinburgh College of Art.”

 In this collaborative work Gill supplied eleven short essays and his son-in-law (husband of Petra) provided the eleven full-page illustrations. The essays are: “Unholy trinity,” “Unholy alliance,” “Work and leisure,” “Paradox of plenty,” “Wheels within wheels,” “Yes, we have no bananas,” “Europa and the bull,” “Swine,” “Cannon fodder,” “Safe for Christianity,” and “Melancholia.” They treat of social problems, war and society, and capitalism.

 Dublin first edition, printed in the same year as the London first. With this work, Gillies (1747–1836) — later the Royal Historiographer of Scotland — became one of the earliest British classicists to examine Greek history from a political perspective, in this case Whiggish. The volumes are illustrated with two oversized, folding maps depicting Greece and its colonies.

 ESTC N7592; Allibone 672; Brunet, II, 1599. On Gillies, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Contemporary calf, spines with nice gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; joints cracked or open, corners/edges rubbed, spine with tips chipped and leather cracked. Ex–social club library: old shelving labels at spine heads extending onto sides, 19th-century bookplates, call numbers on endpapers, title-pages pressure-stamped. Vols. I and III with front free endpaper lacking; vol. I map with short tear along one fold and slightly longer tear from inner margin, extending into image. Intermittent light spotting; a few leaves age-toned. Vol. II with a few small, early ink blotches. All volumes with typical offsetting to early and late leaves from binding's turn-ins. Indeed a set nicer to contemplate, outside and inside, than our description must suggest. (27644)

 Early Italian translation (from the Latin) of Giovio's biography of Alfonso d'Este, famed patron of the arts and husband of Lucrezia Borgia. Known for his Historiarum sui temporis and Vitae virorum illustrium, the author (a.k.a. Paulus Jovius, 1483–1552) was a humanist collector, physician, and historian, as well as bishop of Nocera.

This second edition of the vernacular rendition — “tradotta in lingua Toscana, da Giovambattista Gelli Fiorentino” — is uncommon: WorldCat locates onlyfour U.S. institutional holdings (although some records identify the publication date as 1556). It follows the first Italian appearance of 1553 and the Latin original of 1551.

Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate, engraved in green, of Francesco Maria Berio, marchese di Salza; back pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Ward, Viscount Dudley and Ward. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

 Renaissance collector, writer, and rascal, Giovio's most important writing is his “Lives of Illustrious Men.” Written in what is often called “law style” and clearly in part an outgrowth of his passion for collecting oil portraits of the great, it has among itsnearly 200 biographies a judicious sprinkling of reports on contemporaries who were solicited for financial contributions, which solicitations were thinly disguised blackmail demands. Those who paid had much embellished biographies; those who didn't were treated harshly and faults and sins were exposed ruthlessly. Among the booty Giovio thus obtained were two houses and much gold and silver.

Provenance: 17th-century ownership signature of “Ant. de Sedorne” on title-page; two 19th-century stamps on same, one unidentified and the other of the “Seminarium Sancti Nicolai de Cardueto”; and stamp on verso of same, of the Redemptorist Fathers of the Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary (deaccessioned).

 “Gissing's last and most beautiful book,” according to Mosher. The lightly fictionalized memoir — stylized as an edited, seasonally organized presentation of a deceased author's journal — is preceded by an introductory survey of Gissing's work, written by Thomas Secombe. This edition was printed on handmade Van Gelder paper, with the type distributed afterwards; only700 copies were printed on paper, with an additional 25 on Japan vellum.